Last month, I was pretty coy about the big fun twist at the end of the issue. Let’s stop beating around the bush.
So yes, the big fun twist at the end of last week’s issue is that the evil ventriloquist doll Scarface is no longer shackled to the word in physical form of the gangster doll, and has instead taken over/taken the form of a building, namely a derelict Gotham high-rise. Batman is fighting a possessed apartment building. The residents of the building report hearing voices and witnessing strange unaccountable occurrences, and the Caped Crusader is here to exorcise the demon, and hopefully to learn of its origin. It’s a conceit decidedly Silver Age in tone; one which this reviewer can only imagine was pitched to the tune of “wouldn’t it be fun if we did this?”
That is, of course, not a bad way to write a comic book. Even for a title as shadowy and procedural as Dark Patterns has thus far been, and even for a character as dark as the Dark Knight Detective, it is simply a tonal shift to which you, prospective buyer, ought to be alerted.
In spite of this title’s well-established brooding darkness, there’s a fair bit of Adam West going on here in this issue. Between the conjecturing soliloquy of Batman working out the problem central to the adventure at hand with a kind of verbal panache and grandiosity of purpose which touches delightfully on the fringes of camp and an even more on the nose homage to the Adam West TV series’ running gag of Batman scaling up the side of a building and dealing with whoever inevitably happens to open the window, be they friend or foe, the 1960s Batman television hallmarks are adeptly peppered throughout this issue. If Watters is going to use Adam West as a touchstone, he used it at exactly the right place and to precisely its most forgivable degree.
“The Voice of the Tower”, now more than halfway over, is a chapter in this title more comic-bookish than the serial killer thriller we got in “We are the Wounded”. I was skeptical of this tonal shift last month, and while I maintain that this chapter has taken something of a step backward in enjoyability as compared to those first three issues, I now hold that opinion as a simple matter of subjective personal taste rather than any kind of quality judgment. It’s all a matter of what kind of Batman story you’re looking for. This is still an extremely sure footed comic one which knows exactly what it’s doing and exactly where and how it wants to land.
Artists Hayden Sherman and Tríona Farrell remain in top form throughout this issue. They’re able to effectively render a quick but striking flashback page, and their textures and panel sequencing mirror the disorienting nature of the possessed tower. Each page has its own strict color scheme mapped to the endless rooms and halls of the building— this is an artistic team that is totally in sync and delivering excellent work.
Simply put, this is not at all the direction in which I thought this title was heading, nor is it necessarily what I would have wanted. Scarface becomes a building. It’s just not going to be a conceit which I will ever fully wrap my arms around. But so long as we’re here, so long as we’re heading in this direction, Waters and Hammond are still consistently providing satisfactory thrills.
Recommend if:
- You’ve been itching for just a touch of camp in your Brooding Batman
- You liked Tom King’s take on Scarface/Ventriloquist
- You did not like Tom King’s take on Scarface/Ventriloquist
Overall:
This is a comic that knows what it wants to be and does that very well. Is that thing totally in line with what we all thought this book was going to be from the outset? Slightly! Is that a reason to skip this chapter? Not a chance!
Score: 7/10
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